So Fresh: Typhoon: Building Songs and Community From The Ground Up

Typhoon's newest album White Lighter was released to stream on NPR today. When listening, the music envelops you right out of the gates with layers upon layers of shifting and expanding guitar, stringed, horned, and vocal textures. With the immensely strong storytelling lyricism of Kyle Morton, each song moves and sweeps while grabbing with you imagery that gravitates with strong emotions.

It's no doubt that Typhoon has been making a name for themselves with such a big sound - with 11 members in the band it's not hard to do, but it's not just the sheer size of the band and their music, it's how they've remained rooted in their local community. Having released all of their albums with our friends Tender Loving Empire, a Portland label, and getting on the road bringing local bands with them including Wild Ones and Radiation City - they've always kept strong connection to their hometown.

Typhoon has been reaching out to a greater audience appearing on the likes of The David Letterman Show, and releasing acclaimed records. With this said, it can be a daunting task to create a sustainable band with so many bandmembers, which creates unique opportunities to help fund their endeavors. All of the members of Typhoon launched a Kickstarter video to help fund raise money to buy a new van for touring. They were able to reach beyond their goal of $60,000 based from the support of their fans, friends and family which was a community based from their ongoing engagement with their where they live.

Typhoon continues to prove that they will continue growing and expanding with not only their music and their connections to their expanding community. With this newly released album, they are well on their way to become a household name not only in the neighborhoods they live in, but every neighborhood.